Good grief....that looks like parts of Baghdad.
I didn't see that when I was home less than a couple of weeks ago.
Posted on 01/09/2008 12:39:02 PM PST by weegee
Former Mayor Bob Lanier has joined prominent home builders and developers campaigning to limit new development regulations they believe could threaten Houston's growth.
Lanier's comments are part of a nascent effort to respond to recent city laws and policies, including a high-density development ordinance now being written, that affect the politically powerful real estate industry.
A new organization, Houstonians for Responsible Growth, which has begun the process of registering as a political action committee, is coordinating the campaign, said Ken Hoagland, a political consultant working with the group.
Lanier's involvement came in a letter delivered Dec. 27 to all 14 City Council members and Mayor Bill White. It also was signed by Leo Linbeck Jr., owner of a major local construction company, and Richard Weekley, a prominent developer and home builder.
"We are writing you because of our growing concern that the city is embarking, with the best of intentions, down a path of more extensive planning and regulations, many of which have ill-served cities across our nation," the letter states.
The public involvement of people with the stature of Lanier, Linbeck and Weekley suggests there's a well-organized effort to preserve Houston's traditional laissez-faire approach to land-use regulation.
Along with the letter, council members received copies of a book by Randal O'Toole, an economist associated with the libertarian Cato Institute, about the perils of government planning.
Lanier said he agreed to sign the letter because he shares the concern that increasing regulations could add to the cost of new housing in Houston and price young families and first-time buyers out of the market.
"Each unit of additional cost knocks off a certain number of people from buying a home," said Lanier, who served as mayor from 1992 to 1998. "It's a serious error, in my judgment, to undertake to demonize the development industry."
Examples of the trend toward greater regulation, developers say, are a recent ordinance requiring residential developers to help pay for parks and the creation of a protected historic district in the Old Sixth Ward west of downtown.
Houston's low housing prices are among its chief economic assets, Lanier said, and policies that increase prices could make companies hesitant to locate their businesses here.
Weekley, speaking Monday to a City Council committee reviewing the high-density development ordinance, said the number of families who can afford to buy a median-priced home in Houston is declining, and new regulations could aggravate this problem.
"If you'd like for your children and grandchildren to buy a house in Houston, you need to be careful about unintended consequences," Weekley said.
The city's work on the high-density development ordinance, which would require developers of certain projects to take steps to ease traffic congestion, was prompted by an outcry from neighborhoods near the site of a planned 23-story building near Rice University known as the Ashby high-rise.
White defends city's efforts Some of the leaders of Houstonians for Responsible Growth are real estate professionals serving on a "stakeholders group" advising city officials about the high-density ordinance. Lanier, however, said his concern is about more than one project or ordinance.
"In the aggregate, they're much more significant than just Ashby," Lanier said.
White has characterized his administration's development proposals as narrowly focused efforts to protect neighborhoods or preserve historic properties. White has sought to deflect perceptions he supports zoning or other broad-based land-use planning initiatives.
Hoagland, the consultant, said Houstonians for Responsible Growth includes bankers, architects, construction project managers and others concerned about the economic "ripple effects" of excessive regulation.
No one should get the death penalty based on evidence from Houston's crime lab.
“Bob Lanier’s handpicked successors were Brown and White. I wonder who our next mayor will be.”
>No one should get the death penalty based on evidence from Houston’s crime lab.
Except Mormons. Some solid conservatives told me so.
White CLAIMED he did fix it in his first term. No big worry though, in 2005, no one was going to challenge the “humanitarian” Bill White when he thoughtlessly invited the Katrina evacuees to set up shop here for awhile (of course he then demanded that the state and federal government reimburse the city for expenses and he dared anyone who’d already booked the convention center to “sue him”).
I think a lot of that was our former mayor Out of Town Brown, not Lanier.
Although Houston is rather ugly I credit the lack of government regulation as to why there wasn't a huge spike in housing or the crash that has followed elsewhere.
The supply and demand has been allowed to find natural equilibrium here, whereas elsewhere government meddling has artifically decreased the supply.
Haven't heard a peep about Kathy Whitmire in years and years.
But, but I thought White was Lanier’s heir apparent?
Yep, was the drug czar who as I far as I can tell went on luxiurious vacations most of the time he was in office of course on the taxpayers dime. And I believe gave his family and friends jobs; etc.
Heck, Houston allows big rigs on our residential streets. LOL
This man should have been tarred & feathered and run out of town on a rail buggy long ago. He is shameless.
You said a mouthful there.
Good grief....that looks like parts of Baghdad.
I didn't see that when I was home less than a couple of weeks ago.
That’s a part of Houston?! What tha? It looks like some Communist Bloc era “development”...
Wasn’t there some congressional scandal with her husband?
It is communist bloc but we are getting this type of thing all over town in SHORT neighborhoods. That is why Lanier is advocating. High density “smart growth” without the infrastructure.
Bob Lanier ‘ran’ business redevelopment deals while running metro, the mayor’s office, and his puppet successors.
And the Chronicle is also part of the scam. Then again LBJ blackmailed the Chronicle to not be critical of his administration in exchange for permitting a bank merger to go through (he held the letter for “insurance”). It came to light in the 1990s when LBJ’s tapes were released.
Could be ... but I’m currently suffering from the CRS syndrome, so I can’t say for sure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.